Receipts and repercussions: Mkhwanazi’s allegations put Mchunu in the spotlight

The chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police, Ian Cameron, has called for an urgent parliamentary debate following explosive allegations of meddling and political interference in the operations of the SA Police Service. 

The explosive allegations were made on Sunday by KwaZulu-Natal Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who has fingered police minister Senzo Mchunu, his close associate Brown Mogotsi and Deputy National Commissioner for Crime Detection, Lieutenant General Shadrack Sibiya, as key and central tenets to the alleged interference in police operations, including the disbanding of a task team investigating political killings.

“This was done without the authority of the National Commissioner, nor I, as a Provincial Commissioner, was ever informed,” Mkhwanazi said.

“Five of these dockets had instructions to arrest perpetrators, but nothing has been done; they are sitting in an archive in his office in Pretoria. God knows why.”

During a marathon press conference on Sunday, Mkhwanazi, declared he was combat ready and that he was willing to die for the people of South Africa. 

He accused the police ministry of interference in police operations and detailed how the minister and his associate, Mogotsi, had been entangled with a SAPS service provider, Vusumuzi "Cat" Matlala, who had been awarded a R360 million tender with the law enforcement agency in 2024. 

In May 2025, Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola repealed the contract citing that Matlala's company should never have made it past the first round during the bidding process. 

Mkhwanazi said the recent arrest of Matlala - on attempted murder charges - led police to uncovering - through cellphone analysis - a web of alleged corruption involving the service provider, Mogotsi and the minister.

"On January 1, 2025, Mr Mogotsi sends a WhatsApp message to Mr Vusumuzi "Cat" Matlala, and it reads:  'I have arranged a meeting for Sibiya and the minister, they must have a solution.' 

"Another message reads: 'the task team that came to your house and harassed you, have been dissolved. They got the letter on Monday. As we speak, they are bringing all dockets to Sibiya'."

The dockets were eventually sent to Sibiya in March. Mkhwanazi said further analysis of Matlala's phone revealed that the tenderprenuer was supporting, financially, the political endeavours of Mogotsi and the minister.

"This is supported by evidence of conversations and the proof of payments of guests for January 8 traveling costs and gala dinner in Cape Town. We have the proof of payments," said Mkhwanazi.

On the following day, Matlala received a copy of a letter - from Mogotsi, confirming the disbandment of the political killings task team. Mkhwanazi said Mchunu had denied in Parliament in March, under oath, that Mogotsi was his associate. 

According to Mkhwanazi, the police minister, in cahoots with Sibiya, disbanded the political killings unit and retrieved the case dockets for them to be locked up under lock and key, in the Pretoria offices of Sibiya.

Mkhwanazi said some of the dockets had uncovered a crime syndicate involving underworld figures, politicians, prosecutors, judges and senior police. He said the forced closure of the political task team unit, allegedly engineered by Mchunu and not by the Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola, has sparked the rising tensions and a series of events including the arrest by IDAC, of the co-ordinator of the unit. 

A defiant Mkhwanazi said he would be opening a case against Mchunu for alleged interference in policing matters.

Urgent debate in Parliament

Cameron said he has written to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Thokozile Didiza, to request an urgent parliamentary debate on the disturbing allegations.

"I have written to the Speaker of the National Assembly to request an urgent parliamentary debate on the disturbing allegations that emerged today regarding SAPS leadership."

Special Leave

The IFP, which is a GNU partner with the ANC, has called for a Commission of Inquiry headed by a retired judge to test the allegations made by Mkhwanazi.

IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa, who is also the deputy minister for Transport, said the inquiry should conclude its work within a period of 60 days and that Mchunu should be placed on special leave for the duration of the inquiry.

"The IFP further calls for Minister Mchunu to be placed on special leave until such time that the Independent Commission of Inquiry has concluded its work, and presented its findings.

"During this period Minister Mchunu should subject himself to the due investigative processes of the Commission. The war against crime will not be won and South Africans will not be safe if the fish is rotten at the head, as alleged," said Hlengwa, calling on Ramaphosa to act with urgency, for the sake of national interest and national security.

Calls to suspend Mchunu, Sibiya

The EFF has called for the immediate suspension of Mchunu and Sibiya, saying that the SAPS was the biggest criminal syndicate. 

"Since 2018, the Task Team successfully prosecuted political killings, securing over 120 convictions and 1,800 years in jall time until their work began exposing high-level corruption.

"The ANC is evidently not enacting law enforcement, but running a mafia state. The EFF salutes Mkhwanazi's bravery and demands an urgent parliamentary inquiry, and accountability for all involved," said spokesperson Leigh-Ann Mathys.

Meanwhile, African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) President Collen Malatji said there is a need for action over talk, and urged Mkhwanazi to make arrest if he has any evidence.

"Days of statements and populism have ended. If he has evidence on them, he must arrest them. We are not a country of lawlessness, and we don't want the press briefings, we want people to be arrested.

"We don't want commissioners who are becoming politicians; we want commissioners who act. We don't want him to be a pop star," said Maine. 

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